The present invention relates to a camera and, more particularly, to a camera having a barrier member that can smoothly move between a position at which a photographing lens is exposed and a position at which the photographing lens is covered.
In a small, handy camera, i.e., a so-called compact camera, the above barrier member has been widely used as a member for protecting the photographing lens in an unused state in place of a detachable lens cap that one looses too often.
As such a barrier member, for example, the barrier member in Jpn. UM Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 58-163938 is widely known.
In the camera disclosed in Jpn. UM Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 58-163938, a pair of cam grooves are formed in upper and lower portions of the camera body to guide a protective member serving as a barrier member to the first position at which the member covers the lens and the second position at which the lens is exposed.
The protective member has two pairs of pins that respectively engage with the upper and lower cam grooves at two positions in each groove.
Click portions for temporarily fixing the corresponding pair of pins when the protective member is placed at the first position and guide portions that allow the protective member to move outward along the optical axis of the lens by allowing the corresponding pair of pins to move outward along the optical axis of the lens while the protective member moves from the first position to the second position are formed in each of the upper and lower cam grooves.
In the camera disclosed in Jpn. UM Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 58-163938, however, while the protective member moves from the first position to the second position, the pair of pins corresponding to the entrances of the guide portions in the upper and lower cam grooves may be caught in the grooves. As a consequence, the protective member may not smoothly move to the first position.
In addition, according to the prior art, the protective member cannot be moved to the first position in some case.